16 students met with producer Michael Rauch Sunday afternoon at the Maharishi University of Management./KTVO

FAIRFIELD, IOWA — Meditate and create. That’s the main focus of the Maharishi University of Management’s David Lynch Screenwriting Program.

Sixteen students are currently enrolled in this two-year masters in fine arts program. Over the course of 10 days, they’ll go through intensive training and meet with well-known producers and executives in the business.

Dorothy Rompalske is the program’s director. She says teaching Transcendental Meditation is what makes this course so special.

“We use Transcendental Meditation in order for the students to sort of dive within and find material that they feel really passionate about, writing about,” said Rompalske.

And the meditation seems to really be working for the students.

“One of the scripts I wrote pretty much all came through meditation. And it’s such a different way of thinking that I wasn’t used to, so it’s just opened a lot more creativity,” said student Josh Lee.

Saturday, students had the chance to meet with Michael Rauch, who’s produced various TV shows such as ‘Royal Pains’ and ‘Beautiful People.’

Rauch answered questions and talked about what it’s really like to be a writer and work in this industry.

“To sit down and get the actual information on how to do it, how they pitch, how the process is, it’s really a unique and valuable experience,” said student Tracy Flannigan.

While the David Lynch screenwriting program is only a year old, Rompalske says she hopes to see it grow over the next few years.

“I think we’re such a different model than what people are used to, so we’ll have hopefully even more students next time around,” said Rompalske.